*2.1.1 Urban agriculture*

*Urban Horticulture - Necessity of the Future*

can offer.

agriculture family.

**2. Materials and methods**

• Tires: used in the garden site

According to Guthman [4] for the production of food, students, in the exercise of citizenship or as future agricultural workers, will be better able to understand the debates and controversies that underlie the production, creation and marketing of agricultural products, recognizing the limits and possibilities of models, both of intensive production and alternative models, these little valued and disseminated (family farming, agroforestry production, etc.), as well as recognizing the various aspects (environmental, scientific, political, economic, cultural, etc.) present in the different models of food production and understand the different tools of flexible teaching and learning, based on permaculture, that the gardens School (Gardens)

One of the alternatives to raise the perception about activities in the agricultural environment and the care of the environment is the use of a school garden, which can serve as a source of food and didactic activities, offering advantages to the communities involved, such as obtaining quality food at low cost and involvement in food and health programs developed by schools [5], contributing also to the knowledge of the 3 R's (reduce, reuse and recycle), integration of the community school in the performance of socio-environmental activities, encouraging the consumption of organic foods, providing students with experiences of agroecological practices for food production, so that they can be transmitted to their relatives and, conse-

In this context, the research aims to reflect on the environmental issues and the action of the gardens in urban/school spaces, taking allowance from the garden as a methodological instrument the interdisciplinary practices of activities related to

The literature review presented below contains a synthesis of the latest studies on the production of vegetable gardens in urban areas, highlighting the production of vegetable gardens in schools. The methods used were studies of free area in school spaces of three schools of early childhood education, investigation of the needs and desires of the school community and researches on types and forms for plant production in urban areas and employability of recyclable materials in its construction. The software Auto Card, a tool for architectural drawings, enabling

For the preparation of the gardens passive recycling materials may be used, through characterization of solid residues, materials that has been discarded by the local population, without appropriate destination for the environment, for

• Pet bottles: it is used to demarcate the Mandala (vegetable garden en circle)

• Gray water from the production of school feeding: irrigation and fertilization.

• Demolition wood: to assemble the structure of the vegetable gardens.

garden site and store rainwater for irrigation through the drip.

• Organic residues of food production in school: fertilizer.

quently, apply them to home or community gardens [6].

the creation of gardens for each space studied was used.

• Paper: fertilizer and base of the flowerbeds.

**98**

example,

Urban agriculture is an activity that has been growing in Brazil and worldwide, according to FAO—Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This activity refers to the use of surfaces located in urban areas or in their respective peripheries for agricultural production and the creation of small animals intended for own consumption or for sale in local markets.

Some of the concepts about urban agriculture in general address their relationship with localization. For Dimoud and Nikolopoulou [7], the definition of urban agriculture refers to the location of the spaces within and around cities or urban areas. Therefore, the intra area refers to all spaces within cities that may have some type of agricultural activity, which can be individual or collective, in addition to being located in private or public areas such as squares or idle areas.

Wong [8] stated that the concept of urban agriculture goes beyond what is defined by the area of localization, which is therefore an interaction between the ecological and urban economic system, not being reduced only to the urban location.

Dimoud and Nikolopoulou [7] stated that this integration is made possible by the fact that urban agriculture has a set of activities (cultivation, breeding, fishing, etc.) that develop in the interior (Intraurban) or in the periphery (periurban) of the cities.

The development of urban or periurban agriculture is directly linked to the demographic and economic growth of cities, contributing to the reconfiguration of urban spaces through land use, population structures, social practices, among other factors.

The advantages of urban agriculture, includes the local development through the rational use of spaces, food security, formation of microclimates, maintenance of biodiversity, water drainage, harvesting of rain water, decreased temperature and income generation. Most common examples of urban agriculture are the community gardens that are most often installed in urban idle areas, which may be public or private, intended for cultivations of vegetables, medicinal plants, legumes, fruits and other foods, providing food for families living near these areas, or seedling production [9].

Urban gardens have differentiated configurations, where they almost always correspond to the boundary of the area where you want to deploy it.

One of the configurations observed in the use of urban gardens is the greenhouses. These are protected agricultural environments where the plastics are used as cladding materials for covering the greenhouse framework, used in the protection of crops, facing the climatic adversities. Agricultural greenhouses are used to create climatic environments suitable for plants, protecting them from poor environmental conditions such as frost, hail, and other weather. They are used for food production, cultivation of ornamental plants, flowers and medicinal plants [10].

Rosenzweig et al. [11] stated that the cultivation in protected environment brings with it numerous advantages such as: harvest in the periods between harvest, faster production cycle due to favorable environment conditions, increase in production, control of the environment promoting the development and production of plants, greater control of pests and diseases that may occur in the protected environment, better use of available resources, reduced risks and increased market competitiveness by the producer.

According to Wong [8], besides urban gardens, vertical farms have numerous advantages such as production of several crops throughout the year, zero loss of

crops related to possible adverse weather conditions, reduction of transaction costs, production without pesticide use, herbicides and fertilizers, optimization of water resources, greater control of food security and social and esthetic gain in large urban centers.
